An abstract masterpiece by the contemporary German artist Gerhard Richter will be amongst the highlights of a forthcoming Christie’s auction in New York.

‘Abstraktes Bild (774-4)’, painted in 1992, has been consigned from the permanent collection of the Linda Pace Foundation, and will be sold to raise funds for a new campus building in San Antonio, Texas.

The foundation was established in 2003 by Pace, a renowned collector and pioneering patron of the arts who also founded the artist residency program ArtPace San Antonio in 1995. Following Paces’s death in 2007 the foundation has continued her efforts, and regularly loans work from the collection, which features over 600 artworks, to museums around the world.

“We are honored that Christie’s has been entrusted with the sale of Abstraktes Bild (774-4) from the Linda Pace Foundation,” said Laura Paulson, Chairman and International Director for Post-War and Contemporary Art. “Linda had a prescient vision for contemporary art, and was one of the first collectors who truly understood the new visual language in this series of paintings, with an ability to embrace both the aesthetic beauty and conceptual rigor of this dazzling canvas.”

“Gerhard Richter is certainly the greatest abstract painter working today and Abstraktes Bild is among one of his most significant works, a superb testament to the artist’s mastery of the most spectacularly iconic forms of abstraction in contemporary art. The demand for such a masterpiece will be global and we anticipate excitement in the saleroom as international collectors compete for this major work.”

‘Abstraktes Bild (774-4)’ was painted during one of Richter’s most creatively rewarding periods, during which the abstract style he first began in the late 1980s reached its zenith. The painting was immediately exhibited in Rome following its execution, and was quickly snapped up by Pace in 1993, remaining in her residence ever since. Appearing at auction for the first time, the work is expected to sell for $14-$18 million.

“The Linda Pace Foundation is proud to partner with Christie’s for the sale of Abstraktes Bild (774-4) an impressive and art-historically relevant example of Gerhard Richter’s abstract paintings, which has been on view in Linda Pace's private residence since its acquisition in 1993,” said Foundation Trustee Kathryn Kanjo.

“The Foundation's acquisitions are guided by Pace’s own collecting style, which favored works that reflected her own feminist perspective, her engagement in social issues, and consideration of spirituality and beauty. Linda's generous aspirations to make her collection available to the public through an arts campus may be realized by her investment in Richter's important work, Abstraktes Bild (774-4).”

The Christie’s Post War and Contemporary Art Evening Sale takes place on November 12.